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Friday, 31 March 2006

Compassionate Father, Who is true to the Covenant, the time has arrived for You to send a message of salvation and redemption to Your world, to comfort all of Your children, and to bestow upon them an era of peace and blessing, light and joy.

The terrorist was caught at the Beka'ot checkpoint in the Jordan Valley, which is manned by members of the special religious brigade. The eighteen–year-old had traveled from Shechem and was supposed to be picked up by Israeli Arab terrorists and driven to a population center to blow himself up among the maximum number of people he could find.

The explosives contained in the belt weighed upwards of 80 pounds, local commander Col. Motti Elmoz told Army Radio. The explosives were detonated by sappers in a controlled explosion.

Readers might remember that the Nahal Hareidi battalion faces "reconsideration" by IDF commanders from time to time, and has in the past been threatened with dismantlement.

In yesterday's bombing, The murderer, who was dressed as a religious Jew, apparently entered the car near Karnei Shomron, possibly together with the other two 'trempistim' [hitch-hikers], and the car drove east towards Kedumim.

Just outside Kedumim, the terrorist detonated his explosive, which was estimated at 10 kilograms, and all inside were killed instantly.

A Kedumim resident who was driving a car behind them later said, "I saw the car veer strangely, then stop abruptly, and then, within seconds, there was a tremendous explosion." Another neighbor said that the HaLevys had acted heroically, refusing to drive the car into the community when they understood the terrorist's intentions. "They bodily prevented many other people from being killed," she said.

It was later learned that the car had four occupants in addition to the terrorist.

* Rafael and Helena HaLevy lived in Kedumim for some 15 years. They were among the first to move into the neighborhood of Karmei Kedem, having arrived from Kfar Gideon near Afula. Rafi served originally as Kedumim's security officer, and later as the town gardener, while Helena - who immigrated to Israel from Brazil at the age of 18 - ran a day care center. They are survived by four children and three grandchildren, and will be buried in Kedumim on Sunday.

* Reut Feldman, 20, from Herzliya, was doing her second year of volunteer national service at the local emergency center. Her funeral is scheduled for Friday afternoon at 3:30 in Herzliya.

* Shaked Lasker, 16, of Kedumim, studying in 10th grade. His funeral is scheduled for Friday afternoon at 3:30 in Kedumim.

Kedumim Mayor Daniella Weiss ... said that Israel treats the terrorists too lightly: "We have to hit them in a way that will not let them lift their heads."

For what it's worth, I agree with her. It's either "hit them in a way that will not let them lift their heads" or risk their blowing up more tenth-graders. I don't see what the conundrum is.

... parchment cut by an officer in the German air force, the Luftwaffe, during World War II, from a Torah scroll ... has come into the hands of the rabbi of Migdal Ha'emek, head of the Migdal Ohr youth village and an Israel Prize laureate.

Rabbi Grossman says Moti Dotan, the head of the Lower Galilee Regional Council, recently came to his house with a notebook in hand. Dotan had returned from a ceremony in honor of the 25th anniversary of the twin cities pact between the regional council and the Hanover district in Germany. Dotan said that at the conclusion of a festive evening, a member of the Hanover district council approached him and asked to speak to him.

"My father, Werner Herzig, died a few weeks ago," said the man. "Before his death he said he wanted to speak to me, and he told me he had participated in the war and been involved in crimes. 'It's important for me to tell you this, because today there are Holocaust deniers,' [said the Herzig senior]."

... Herzig added that his father told him he had participated in the burning of a synagogue on the Russian front.

According to Dotan, Herzig junior gave him the ID document and asked him to find a holy man in the Lower Galilee and give it to him....

The parchment is from the book of Deuteronomy, from the weekly portion "Ki Tavo." The rabbi reads:

"...and distress wherewith thy enemy shall distress thee in thy gates ... then the Lord will make thy plagues remarkable, and the plagues of thy offspring, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and severe sicknesses, and of long continuance ... also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this Torah, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou art destroyed. And you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of the heaven for multitude" (Deuteronomy 28, 57-62).

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The Hamas-led government faced a financial crisis on its first day in office Thursday as Western nations threatened to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority if the militant group does not soften its stance on Israel.

Hamas leaders said the aid cuts violate the Palestinians' democratic rights, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared: "The principle is very clear. We're not going to fund a Hamas-led government."

The Palestinian Authority gets a large part of its $1.9 billion annual budget from overseas sources, and may run into difficulties next week when March salaries are due to be paid to some 140,000 government employees.

Hamas officials had hoped Arab and Islamic countries would fill the funding gap, but the Arab League summit ended earlier this week with states only reaffirming past pledges to provide the $55 million a month, a commitment they have rarely met.

Hear that, boys and girls? HAMAS has a "right" to your hard-earned American tax dollars.

Throughout the day Thursday members of the elections committee counted 150,000 “double-enveloped” ballots, belonging to soldiers, Gaza evacuees, the ill and infirm, and prisoners, who vote at locations other than their registered precinct due to their circumstances....

Now, with the “double-enveloped” ballots ... counted, the Elections Committee reported that Kadima, Likud and Meretz gained an additional Knesset seat. Shas, Israel Our Home and United Arab List-Ta’al all lost one mandate.

An Arab terrorist from Fatah's Al-Aksa Brigade dressed as a Jewish hitchhiker and blew himself up inside the car of those who picked him up near Kedumim, in Samaria - murdering three Jews.

The attack took place at 10 PM near the gas station and hitchhiking station adjacent to the town of Kedumim.

The terror group released a statement saying the bomber was a 24-year-old from Hevron.

Shortly following the explosion, police believed the blast was a terrorist bomb that detonated prematurely, killing the bomber inside. The vehicle was engulfed in flames so preliminary reports took over an hour to begin to reflect the reality.

It now appears that the bomber dressed as a Jew, wearing a kippa (yarmulke) and hassidic garb and was given a ride by the unsuspecting occupants of the Israeli vehicle. He then blew himself up inside, killing three passengers. The number of dead remains unclear ....

With Arabs in Israel celebrating "Land Day, there were some 70 terror alerts (13 specific) in Israel today.

Several parents in Apopka, Fla., are upset over a surprise school "Holocaust" project that some say tormented children, according to a Local 6 News report.

Local 6 News reported that eighth-graders with last names beginning with L through Z at Apopka Memorial Middle School were given yellow five-pointed stars for Holocaust Remembrance Day. Other students were privileged, the report said.

Father John Tinnelly said his son was forced to stand in the back of the classroom and not allowed to sit because he was wearing the yellow star.

"He was forced to go to the back of the lunch line four times by an administrator," Tinnelly said.

Tinnelly said the experiment upset his child.

"He was crying," Tinnelly said. "I said, 'What are you crying about?' He said, 'Daddy, I was a Jew today.'"

.... Tinnelly said he believes it is important to teach the Holocaust, but apparently little was learned during the experiment.

"I tried to talk to my son and I asked all of these questions and the only thing he said is, 'Daddy, the only thing I found out today is I don't want to be Jewish,'" Tinnelly said.